1 Lunda empire

Lunda empire, historic Bantu-speaking African state founded in the 16th century in the region of the upper Kasai River (now in northeastern Angola and western Democratic Republic of the Congo). Although the Lunda people had lived in the area from early times, their empire was founded by invaders coming west from Luba. Between 1600 and 1750, bands of Lunda adventurers established numerous satellites (see Kasanje; Kazembe; Luba-Lunda states). The Lunda empire consisted of a centralized core, a ring of provinces closely tied to the capital, an outer ring of provinces that paid tribute but were otherwise autonomous, and a fringe of independent kingdoms that shared a common Lunda culture. The imperial boundaries were thus only loosely defined.

Date: 

1501 - 1900Related Places: Democratic Republic of the Congo Angola

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Lunda traded with both the Arabs on the Indian Ocean and, from about 1650, the Portuguese on the Atlantic. The leading exports were ivory and slaves; imports included cloth and guns. The empire reached the height of its power by the 1850s. Thereafter its might was eroded by the incursions of the neighbouring Chokwe. Portuguese troops arrived from Angola in the west in 1884 and Belgians from the Congo Free State in the northeast in 1898. Lunda was partitioned between them. Guerrilla warfare against the Congo Free State continued until 1909, when the Lunda leaders were captured and executed.



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empire

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By Daniel I. O'Neill • Edit History

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empire, major political unit in which the metropolis, or single sovereign authority, exercises control over territory of great extent or a number of territories or peoples through formal annexations or various forms of informal domination.

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history of Mesopotamia ancient Egypt Western colonialism emperor colonialism

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The nature and evolution of empire

Empire has been a characteristic form of political organization since early antiquity and predates colonial rule by several centuries. The notion of empire also has outlasted the era of colonialism. Nonetheless, the colonial legacy still haunts former colonial empires and their erstwhile colonies. Many empires, however, were symbols of peace and prosperity, rather than of oppression and exploitation.

Studies of empires show that control within them can be based on incentives rather than coercion or on a combination of both. It can be exercised through a variety of military, economic, and cultural means. It can be formal or informal to varying degrees. The status of entities and individuals on the periphery of empires can also differ. Some peripheral actors are given access to the decision making and resources of the metropolis or sovereign authority, whereas others are kept at a distance or even subject to open discrimination and exploitation. The relationship between metropolis and periphery can be hierarchical and conflict ridden, but it can also be harmonious and based on mutual dependency, with some empires forming quite loose multiple independencies.

The nature of both metropolis and peripheral actors can also differ. In most cases, the metropolis has a centralized government, differentiated economy (separation of producers and consumers), and shared political loyalties, whereas the peripheries have weak government, undifferentiated economies, and highly divided political loyalties. However, the imperial metropolis can also have a relatively weak, limited, and decentralized government; an inefficient economic system; and multiple cultural identities. For instance, medieval empires had limited and decentralized governments performing only a few basic governmental functions. They were ridden by internal conflicts between king (or emperor) and lower aristocracy (whether feudal or bureaucratic), whereas the persistent divergence of local cultures, religions, and traditions implied highly divided political loyalties.

The metropolis does not always have a master plan of imperial conquest. States can become empires by default because they try to bring some order to unstable neighbors or try to convert "barbarians" into "good" citizens or to a specific religion. Likewise, an empire does not necessarily come into being through outright aggression. Some empires emerge quietly or even surreptitiously through uneven modernization and social differentiation. They may not even see themselves as empires.

Different historical periods have generated different types of empires. Alexander the Great built his empire and brought a multitude of nationalities under his central authority largely by the use of military force. The Roman Empire relied far more on peaceful methods, using language and law in the service of its civilizing effort. The Chinese Han Empire was renowned for its administrative skills, enabling it to keep diverse and autonomous provinces under a single rule. The British Empire, like those of France, Portugal, and Spain, used its maritime power and supremacy in global trade. The Soviet Empire skillfully applied ideological penetration alongside the older military, political, and economic techniques of empire building.

21st century empires

The "end of empire" has been declared several times throughout history, but at the beginning of the 21st century it looked as if empires were on the rise rather than in decline. The United States, China, the European Union (EU), and Russia all have been described as empires. All four represent vast territorial units with global influence in material, institutional, and ideological terms. They possess not only global economic and military reach but also the ability to influence the global institutional agenda and shape the notion of legitimacy in various parts of the world. In addition, it can be argued that all four have acted in ways that have imposed significant domestic constraints on a variety of formally sovereign entities, viewing them as a kind of periphery to be governed by the imperial center. (China and Russia also contain peripheries within their own borders, notably Tibet and Chechnya, respectively.)

Moreover, the policies of the United States, China, the EU, and Russia have been guided not merely by their selfish interests but also—if not primarily—by a "civilizing mission" to benefit their region if not the entire world, missions reminiscent of the Pax Romana or the old Chinese Mandate of Heaven. Putatively the United States has sought to maintain global order and forward an economic project consistent with forces of modernization. The EU sees itself as a pole of attraction for its neighbors, contributing to a fairer, safer, and more united world. Meanwhile, contemporary Russia views itself as a bastion against the barbarian forces of chaos, nationalism, and religious fundamentalism flourishing in its backyard.

However, there are significant, and in some cases striking, differences among these four contemporary empires. There is a striking contrast between an autocratic, nationalistic, and militaristic Russia and the peculiar postmodern polity that is the EU, with no single center of government and no army. Nor is there an American equivalent of a subjected inner periphery like Tibet, Xinjiang, and what China calls Inner Mongolia. However, some of those who study empire argue that the United States tends to treat the entire world as its periphery. Its scope of territorial influence is truly global. Although control by the United States is usually informal, it is backed up by enormous military and economic might.

Japan, India, Brazil, South Africa, and Germany also may be seen as empires of a sort. Japan's reluctance to reassume an imperial posture is telling, more a function of historical memory than of military capability. Nevertheless, contemporary Japan, like China and India, shows signs of a "middle kingdom" mentality—a belief that the world revolves around it. Ultimately, empires may rise and fall even while the criteria for defining them are under discussion.

Daniel I. O'Neill

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Angola

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Alternate titles: Republic of Angola, Republica de Angola

By William Gervase Clarence-Smith See All • Edit History

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Angola, country located in southwestern Africa. A large country, Angola takes in a broad variety of landscapes, including the semidesert Atlantic littoral bordering Namibia's "Skeleton Coast," the sparsely populated rainforest interior, the rugged highlands of the south, the Cabinda exclave in the north, and the densely settled towns and cities of the northern coast and north-central river valleys. The capital and commercial centre is Luanda, a large port city on the northern coast that blends Portuguese-style colonial landmarks with traditional African housing styles and modern industrial complexes.



AngolaEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc.



Luanda waterfront

Waterfront lined with palm trees, Luanda, Angola.

© David Stanley



flag of Angola

Audio File: National anthem of Angola

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Head Of State And Government: 

President: João LourençoCapital: LuandaPopulation: (2021 est.) 32,025,000Form Of Government: unitary multiparty republic with one legislative house (National Assembly [220])1Official Language: Portuguese

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Angola at the beginning of the 21st century was a country ravaged by war and the related effects of land mines and malnutrition, and it was often dependent on the international community for the basics of survival. It is a country that is nevertheless rich in natural resources, including precious gems, metals, and petroleum; indeed, it ranks among the highest of the oil-producing countries in sub-Saharan Africa. It is the largest and wealthiest of the Portuguese-speaking African states, and Portuguese influences have been felt for some 500 years, although Angola acquired its present boundaries only in 1891. An anticolonial struggle that began in 1961 finally led to independence in 1975.



AngolaEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc.



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In "We Must Return," a poem he wrote from prison in 1956, the Angolan poet Agostinho Neto, who was also the country's first president, described Angola as "red with coffee / white with cotton / green with maize" and as "our land, our mother." Unfortunately, Neto's happiness with a "liberated Angola—Angola independent" did not last long, and a civil war that went on 27 years left much of the country in ruins. Beginning in 2002, however, with the ending of the war, Angola had more hope for a peaceful future than it had in the previous quarter century.

Land

Angola is roughly square in shape, with a maximum width of about 800 miles (1,300 km), including the Cabinda exclave, which is located along the Atlantic coast just north of Angola's border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Angola is bordered to the far northwest by the Republic of the Congo, to the north and northeast by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the southeast by Zambia, to the south by Namibia, and to the west by the Atlantic Ocean.



physical features of Angola

Physical features of Angola.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Relief

From a narrow coastal plain, the land rises abruptly to the east in a series of escarpments to rugged highlands, which then slope down toward the centre of the continent. The coastal plain varies in width from about 125 miles (200 km) in the area south of Luanda to about 15 miles (25 km) near Benguela. The Bié Plateau to the east of Benguela forms a rough quadrilateral of land above the 5,000-foot (1,500-metre) mark, culminating at about 8,600 feet (2,600 metres) and covering about one-tenth of the country's surface. The Malanje highlands in the north-central part of the country are less extensive and lower in elevation, while the Huíla plateau in the south is smaller still but rises steeply to an elevation of approximately 7,700 feet (2,300 metres). The almost featureless plateau that covers the eastern two-thirds of Angola gradually falls away to between 1,650 and 3,300 feet (500 and 1,000 metres) at the eastern border. The highest point in the country is Mount Moco, near the city of Huambo, which reaches an elevation of 8,596 feet (2,620 metres).

Drainage

The Lunda Divide forms a watershed on the plateau, separating north- and south-flowing rivers. In the northeast, rivers such as the Cuango (Kwango) flow out of Angola into the mighty Congo River, which forms the boundary between Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the final 90 miles (145 km) of its course. The central part of the plateau is drained by the Cuanza (Kwanza), the largest river entirely within Angola's frontiers, which is about 620 miles (1,000 km) in length. It runs for roughly half its length in a northerly direction before bending westward through a break in the escarpment between the Malanje highlands and the Bié Plateau, and it flows into the sea about 40 miles (65 km) south of Luanda. The southwestern part of the country is drained by the Cunene River (Kunene), which heads south before turning west and breaking through the escarpment at the Ruacana Falls, after which it marks the boundary between Angola and Namibia to the Atlantic Ocean. Some rivers in the southeast of the plateau flow into the Zambezi River, which itself crosses the Cazombo region in the far eastern extension of the country. Other rivers in this area feed the Okavango Swamps of northwestern Botswana. Small rivers in the south run into the internal drainage system of the Etosha Pan in Namibia, while others, often seasonal in nature, drain the steep western slopes of the escarpment.

Soils

The coastal plain consists of alluvia, chalk, and sand, underlain by oil-bearing formations over the northern two-thirds. Crystalline bedrock of Precambrian age (between about 540 million and 4 billion years old) emerges along the escarpment, and mineral deposits sometimes lie close to the surface. Considerable erosion has occurred in this area, and laterite formations are common. Most of the plateau in the eastern two-thirds of the country lies buried under deep deposits of infertile windblown Kalahari sands. The river gravels of the northeast contain diamonds, and rare kimberlite pipes occur in this area.



bedrock and laterite formations

Bedrock and laterite formations visible in the eroded landscape south of Luanda, in the subplateau region of Angola.

Gerald Cubitt/Bruce Coleman Ltd.

Climate

Angola has a tropical climate with a marked dry season. The climate is largely affected by the seasonal movements of the rain-bearing intertropical convergence zone, the northward flow of the cold Benguela Current off the coast, and elevation. Rainfall is the key determinant of climatic differentiation, and it decreases rapidly from north to south and in proximity to the coast. The Maiombe forest in the northern part of the Cabinda exclave receives the greatest amount of rainfall, about 70 inches (1,800 mm) per year, and Huambo, on the Bié Plateau, receives 57 inches (1,450 mm). In contrast, Luanda, on the dry coast, receives about 13 inches (330 mm), while the southernmost part of the coastal plain gets as little as 2 inches (50 mm). The rainy season lasts from September to May in the north and from December to March in the south. Droughts frequently afflict the country, especially in the south. Temperatures vary much less than rainfall, however, and generally decrease with distance from the Equator, proximity to the coast, and increasing elevation. The average annual temperature in Soyo, for example, at the mouth of the Congo, is 79 °F (26 °C), whereas in Huambo, on the Bié Plateau, it is 67 °F (19 °C).

Plant and animal life

Until the late 19th century, parts of Angola were covered with dense rainforest, mainly in the northern part of the Cabinda exclave, the western edge of the Malanje highlands, the northwestern corner of the Bié Plateau, and along some rivers in the northeast. Much of this forest has been greatly diminished by agriculture and logging, and now most of Angola's surface is covered with different kinds of savanna (grasslands with scattered trees), ranging from savanna-forest mosaic in the north to thorn scrub in parts of the south. Natural or man-made fires occur frequently in savanna vegetation, and tree species are thus usually resistant to fire. True desert is confined to the Namib in the far southwest, which extends north from Namibia and is the home of a unique plant, the tumboa (Weltwitschia mirabilis), which has a deep taproot and two broad, flat leaves about 10 feet (3 metres) long that lie along the desert floor.

The fauna is typical of the savanna lands of Africa. Carnivores include leopards, lions, and hyenas, while the plant-eating animals are represented chiefly by elephants, hippopotamuses, giraffes, zebras, buffaloes, gnu (wildebeests) and various other antelopes, and monkeys. Angola is rich in bird species and has a wide variety of reptiles, including crocodiles. The numerous insects include mosquitoes and tsetse flies, both serious pests that carry disease. There are about a dozen national parks and nature reserves, notably Iona National Park in the southeast corner of the country and Quicama National Park just south of Luanda, but checks on hunting largely broke down with the spread of civil war. The giant sable antelope (Hippotragus niger variani), found in the south, is particularly vulnerable. Other endangered populations include the gorillas and chimpanzees of the Maiombe forest, the black rhinoceros, and the Angolan giraffe. Marine life is particularly rich along the southern coast, because the cold Benguela Current provides nutrients for many temperate-water species.

People of Angola

Ethnic and linguistic composition

Apart from a few Europeans and isolated bands of Northern Khoisan speakers such as the !Kung (a San group) in the remote southeast, all Angolans speak Bantu languages of the Niger-Congo language family, which dominates western, central, and southern Africa. The largest ethnolinguistic group is the Ovimbundu, who speak Umbundu and who account for about one-fourth of the population. They inhabit the Bié Plateau, having migrated to Benguela and Lobito and areas along the Benguela Railway to the west and east, and live in fairly large numbers in Luanda. The next-largest ethnic group is the Mbundu (Kimbundu), who speak Kimbundu and who also make up about one-fourth of the population. They dominate the capital city and the Malanje highlands and are well represented in most coastal towns. The Kongo (Bakongo, Esikongo)—in the far north, including the city of Luanda and parts of the countries of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo—speak Kikongo and account for about one-eighth of the population. Lunda, Chokwe, and Ngangela peoples live scattered through the thinly populated eastern part of the country, spilling over into the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia. The Ovambo (also known as Ambo) and Herero peoples in the southwest also live in Namibia, while the closely related Nyaneka-Nkhumbi peoples inhabit only Angola.



Angola: Ethnic compositionEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

The use of the Portuguese language by indigenous Angolan groups dates back hundreds of years; in the Kongo kingdom, some were able to speak and read Portuguese as early as 1491. Beginning in the 1920s, Portuguese colonial policies sought to make Portuguese the only language spoken in Angola; these attempts met with limited success. Portuguese is often the only language spoken in Luanda and in much of the interior extending beyond the city and in other parts of the country; in some areas, however, indigenous languages are used in daily life. Because Portuguese developed as the lingua franca of the country and became the language of the present political leadership, those who did not speak Portuguese were effectively excluded from the political process. Since independence the government has recognized the major African languages, including six that were designated as official languages for educational instruction. However, widespread use of African languages in educational instruction never occurred, and the government continued to employ Portuguese for education, written documents, and official usage. In the years since the end of the civil war, there has been a renewed effort to develop a cohesive national language policy that preserves the country's indigenous languages and associated cultural histories; these efforts include providing language instruction in schools and offering civic materials in indigenous languages. Other languages spoken in Angola include English and Afrikaans, which are sometimes spoken in the south and east, especially by people who have resided in Namibia and Zambia as workers or refugees, and French and, to a lesser extent, Lingala, which are often understood among the Kongo in the north. Kikongo ya leta, a Creole based on Kikongo, is also spoken in the north.

Religion

Angola's population is overwhelmingly Christian. About two-fifths of the population is Roman Catholic, about two-fifths is Protestant, and some one-tenth adheres to traditional beliefs or other religions.



Angola: Religious affiliationEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

The current religious makeup of Angola has its roots in the country's history. In precolonial times, Angolans of various groups followed broadly similar religious traditions that revolved around venerating ancestors and worshipping territorially oriented deities under a creator high god (often known as Nzambi or Suku). That religious system continues in some form in many places today. The Portuguese introduced Christianity into the Kongo kingdom in the 15th century; since the mid-16th century, most Kongo have regarded themselves as Christians, although their practice has often mixed Christian and traditional beliefs. When the colony of Angola was established in 1575, the Portuguese continued to spread Christianity in the regions inland of Luanda and in the surrounding areas.

In the late 19th century, Protestant missionaries entered Angola and made numerous converts among both the Roman Catholic population and those who still followed traditional religions. Baptists operated in the north, Methodists in the Kimbundu-speaking regions, and Congregationalists in areas of Ovimbundu settlement and in the east. The Protestants were especially effective in the Ovimbundu area, despite the efforts of the Portuguese colonial government, which reinforced and subsidized Catholic missionary activities, sometimes harassed Protestants, and served the many Catholic settlers from Portugal who went to Angola. Since the mid-1950s, African Independent Churches, especially Our Lord Jesus Christ Church in the World (Tocoist church), have evangelized from bases mostly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the 1970s the church opposed Angola's Marxist government and was subsequently banned briefly in the late 1980s.

Nationalist leaders were especially drawn from the Protestant sections of the population, but, when the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola; MPLA) came to power in 1975, its policy as leader of a Marxist-Leninist state was antireligious. Religious organizations were denounced, Roman Catholics for their collaboration with the colonial state and Baptists and Congregationalists for their role in the leadership of the rival National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola; UNITA) and the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (Frente Nacional de a Libertação de Angola; FNLA). The Methodist Church, however, from which many MPLA leaders were drawn, was more favourably treated. Religious institutions, hospitals, and newspapers were taken over by the state, though sometimes they were actually run by the religious organizations.

Since the formal abandonment of Marxism and as part of an attempt at national reconciliation, the government has become more tolerant of religious organizations. Formal religious organizations now operate openly again, although there are restraints imposed by official distrust.

Settlement patterns

The rural population is largely concentrated in the highlands and along watercourses running off the highlands. The Bié Plateau alone contains about half the total rural population. In the north and centre of the country, people live in villages, whereas in the south, where cattle keeping is important, there is a tradition of dispersed settlement and transhumance in search of pastures. A few !Kung live as nomads in remote areas of the far south. The decades of warfare affected settlement patterns, resulting in an increase in the size of village settlements. Settlement patterns have also been affected by forced labour; a form of this practice existed in the precolonial period, was continued by the Portuguese, and was evident in the manner in which both government and rival armies acquired soldiers during the civil war.



Angola: Urban-ruralEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

At the end of the colonial period, more than four-fifths of the population was rural, a figure that had declined to about three-fifths by the beginning of the 21st century. Continuous warfare and the resultant migration had increased the population of Luanda to more than two million by the mid-1990s; conversely, many towns in the east and on the Bié Plateau were destroyed. Farther south along the coastal plain, the historic town of Benguela and the port and industrial centre of Lobito are traditional rivals, while Namibe is the port for the south and the country's largest fishing centre. Other important northern cities are Malanje, at the eastern end of the Luanda Railway, and the coastal oil towns of Cabinda and Soyo. Inland, M'banza Congo is the historic capital of the Kongo kingdom. Huambo, on the Bié Plateau, is surrounded by a scattering of smaller towns, while Lubango dominates the Huíla highlands.



Lubango

A residential area in Lubango.

Lisannegerstel

Demographic trends

Angola has never been densely populated, and the export of at least five million slaves between 1500 and 1850 kept the population from growing at a greater rate. At the beginning of the 21st century, the country's population density was well below the average for Southern Africa, with vast areas in the semidesert coastal strip and the eastern two-thirds of the country almost empty.

During the civil war (1975–2002), it is estimated that warfare killed about a half million people; famine and disease, exacerbated by the conflict, are estimated to have killed an additional half million people as well. However, the population growth rate remained high during this time and later increased after the end of the war. Angola's birth rate is among the highest in the world; however, so too is the country's infant mortality rate. Life expectancy is similar to the average for Southern Africa but is among the lowest in the world, and Angola's population is predominantly young, with about two-fifths under the age of 15 and about one-fourth between the ages of 15 and 29.



Angola: Age breakdownEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

It is estimated that about half a million people fled abroad during the anticolonial war (1961–75), mainly Kongo escaping to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and some Chokwe, Lunda, and Ngangela fleeing to Zambia. There was a renewed outflow of refugees in 1975, with the departure of more than 300,000 Portuguese and an unknown number of Africans. The vagaries of warfare have affected both the number of Angolans living outside the country and their situation within the country. Refugee populations both inside and outside Angola have grown during times of war—such as in the mid- to late 1980s, after the elections of 1992, and from 1998 until the end of the civil war in 2002—and such disruptions have also increased internal migrations to cities, especially Luanda.